Populus Zion, the 2nd Sunday in Advent + Luke 21:25-36 + December 10, 2017
Populus Zion, the 2nd Sunday in Advent
St. Luke 21:25-36
December 10, 2017
Grace
and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) As Christmas gets closer Christians will, without a
doubt, lament the commercialization of Christ’s Mass. The day the Church
celebrates the birth of Christ with the service of Christ’s Word and Christ’s
Sacrament, His Mass, has been overrun by the moneychangers. Christmas, for the
vast majority of the population, means something entirely different than the
celebration of birth of the Son of God according our flesh. The angels sang “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth
peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14). The peace and goodwill which God
promised to mankind was wrapped up in the baby wrapped up in swaddling clothes
lying in a manger. God was making peace with the world through Jesus. “God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing men’s trespasses to them” (2 Corinthians
5:19). But the world has taken Jesus out the manger and stripped the angelic
song of all reference to God, so that now Christmas is a season of generic
goodwill toward all men and nations. At
Christmas we hear the prophet Isaiah say, “Unto
us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). The world
despises the true gift of a child unto us and Son given so it replaces the gift
of Christ with physical gifts so that people’s Christmas is rated a success or
not based on if you received what the gift you wanted, or if you gave the gift
that surprised and pleased someone. The Church prepares the hearts of her
members by preaching penitence and prayer during Advent. The world prepares the
hearts of its members by preaching materialism and consumerism, beginning with
hits high holy day of Black Friday. The world despises Christ and hates Him and
therefore does its best to displace Christ’s Mass with all sorts of crude
distortions of His first Advent.
2) The same is true for Christ’s Second Advent, His
return in glory. Christ’s return, the event which early Christians looked
forward to with joy, has been mass marketed as a dreadful day of death and
destruction. For several decades now, apocalyptic movies have been growing in
popularity. Every year it seems at least one new movie comes out about the catastrophic
end of the world. When people got tired of seeing the end of the world on the
movie screen, the genre turned to zombies as its savior, so that now we have
several television shows about “the zombie apocalypse,” meaning, what would
happen if zombies were real and they threatened to slowly wipe out the human
race. Christ is removed from the end of the world scenario and it becomes a day
of disaster which mankind, if it’s quick witted enough, can advert or at least
survive. In the world’s estimation there is no creator so there isn’t a judge.
The beginning, they believe, was by random happenstance, so it will be when the
world finally comes to end. The world gladly hears Jesus’ words at the
beginning to today’s appointed Gospel lesson. “There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the
stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the
waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those
things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.” But the world
stops up its ears when Christ continues, “Then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” As it treats Christmas, so the world treats Christ’s
second coming. The world teaches Christmas without Christ, or His Mass, and a
Christless last day.
3) And although you may not watch as many zombie shows as
others, you live and move and have your being in this world which hates Christ.
The mass marketed end of the world hysteria, even if you don’t partake of it
directly, can affect you so that it slowly catechizes you to believe that the
end of the world will be a terrible cataclysmic event. And, from the world’s
point of view, that’s precisely what it is. When you remove Christ from
Christmas you get a generic winter holiday that can slowly wear on your nerves.
But when you remove Christ from End times you get something quite dreadful and
terrorizing. The world doesn’t try to tear down both Christmas and the Last Day
simply because the Scriptures give them to us to believe. They tear Christ from
both of these events because they are connected. Christ advented in the flesh
as the babe of Bethlehem so that He might bring “peace and earth and goodwill
toward men.” Not political or territorial peace. True peace between sinners and
a God who hates sin. The Son of God advents in our flesh to take our sins upon
Himself and to earn a perfect righteousness that He offers to all who believe
the Gospel. He reconciles us to God the Father by not imputing our sins to us
and by imputing His righteousness to us when we believe the promise of Gospel
that in Christ, God is merciful to sinners. If you have a God who is merciful
to you, if you have a God who counts you righteousness with the righteousness
of Christ, then you have nothing to fear from that same Christ’s return. If the
world strips Christ from Christmas, then you have no hope for the Last Day. If
the First Advent is without true peace between God and man, then the Second
Advent will be a day of reckoning.
4) But Christ has come in the flesh. He has atoned for
our sins by His innocent, bitter sufferings and death on the cross. He has won
for humanity a perfect righteousness and He gives it to those who believe the
Gospel. There is peace on earth and goodwill toward men from God Himself. You
have a God who is for you and not against you, even though He send you trial
and hardship at times, these are to draw you closer to Him in faith. Because
you have a God who is for you and not against you, because you have Christ who
has died for your sins and given you His very righteousness, you have nothing
to fear for the Last Day. It is the unbeliever and the worldling who’s hearts
will fail them on that day as they see the terrible and catastrophic signs. You
who have Christ’s righteousness by faith have nothing to fear because the One
who offered Himself on the altar of the cross for you is simply returning for
you. Your Lord says, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift
up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).
“So you also,” He says, “when you see these things happening, know
that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke
21:31). What does your Lord say will happen on that day? “Your redemption
draws near.” “The kingdom of God is near.” You pray for the kingdom
of God to come every day when you pray the Our Father. You experience now by
faith because God’s kingdom is wherever He is forgiving sins through His Word
and Sacraments. But on that day you shall experience it and receive the
fullness of your redemption, body and soul. Don’t look down to the earth. Don’t
hang you head is fear or shame. By faith in Christ you are clothed with Christ’s
righteousness, and Christ comes for you to give you His everlasting blessedness
on that day.
5) The Last Day is not a dreadful and awful day of
wrath and terror for those who possess the righteousness of Christ by faith. But
be careful. Until that the day that Christ arrives, or until the day of your
death, you live in the world. The world is continually tempting you away from
Christ, away from faith, into sin and unbelief. Jesus tells us that on the Last
Day we are to look up and lift up our heads. But in the meantime, before His
glorious appearing, He directs us to be vigilant against the devil, the world,
and our own sinful nature. “Take heed to yourselves,” He says, “lest
your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this
life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” He says to take heed to
yourselves because it is not only the Devil and the wicked world who want to
lead you away from faith and into sin. Your own flesh wants that! Take heed
that your hearts are not burdened with carousing and drunkenness. These sins
make prayer impossible and often lead to other terrible sins. But He cautions
us against more than drunkenness, but any over indulgence with impairs our
senses and callouses our hearts to the Word of God. When our bellies are full
and our desires over satisfied we become spiritually drowsy. When our hearts
are weighed down with the cares of this life we too easily neglect the thought
that Christ could return today, even at this very moment! Take heed to
yourself, so that Christ’s return doesn’t catch you unware and unprepared.
6) Christ
also says, “Watch therefore, and
pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will
come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.” How will you be worthy to
escape all those terrible things and stand before the Son of Man? Repentance
and faith every day until that final day. Repentance of the sins which stick to
you and faith that Christ forgives those sins. Repentance over the sins in
which you are entangled, and confidence that because of Christ you have a God
who is merciful to sinners. Repentance for the good you have failed to do, and
faith that Christ has done all things for you. Faith is what makes one worthy to
stand before the Son of man, so that on that day you need not be ashamed of
your sins because you know with certainty that you are clothed with Christ’s perfect
righteousness. You have nothing to fear from the end of the world, for the end
of this world is the beginning of the New Heavens and the New Earth. You have
no reason to tremble at the thought of “signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth
distress of nations, with perplexity,” for those are signs that your
redemption draws nigh. For as your Lord Jesus Christ has come to you in the
flesh during His First Advent, so He will come again at His Second Advent to
give you. And all the faithful baptized, the promised redemption from sin, from
death, and from the devil forevermore.
May
the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.